The Test
by Nolan Hyer
Summary: A test


Every time, the Test has never failed to deliver. The workings of the Test were thought up of only the brightest minds of the government. Now this year. The Test only a day away. But everything seemed normal to the public. Zach giving his usual smirks. Jonas spending excessive hours trapped in his own world of studying and overdue books. Everything _seemed_ normal. By now the flyers had been passed out: _Puppy Cuddle Fest!! Don't Miss It!._ Which was, of course, a lie. And the flyers had been carefully handed out to specific people the government thought possible targets. And of course, like all the other times, all the targets managed to show up. Now all that lay between today and the Test were a couple measly hours.

Today was the day.

All the students, including Zach, Jonas, and Grant were on edge that day. This was the day of the Test. Almost all targets had shown up. Only 2 left. The targets were giddy with excitement at the future promise of puppies. Only 1 left. By now the targets were starting to notice the strange layout of the room: no windows, plain walls, the room in the shape of a circle, and strangest of all; giant metal gates covering all exits. The last person had arrived: the Test began.

A slow mechanic hum filled the room. The vault door which they came in slowly closed. It was closed. Now their only exits were the very poorly lit hallways, but they were heavily guarded by strong, thick metal bars. A minute passed. Then two. Then three. By the fourth minute the heavy metal bars slowly rose: they were free! But then a battle cry came from deep within the hallway: the assasins.

First they came in huge groups of twenty or so, but dwindled down as the room filled with more and more assasins. The room was separated into two groups: the targets, and on the other side, the young assasins. But only the assasins knew the real meaning of the Test: it would determine who would become field, and who would become research. From a birds-eye-view it was clear which students would be in which group: for there was a separation in the group of the front-line and the scragglers. Each student was allowed one weapon. Some caried knives, bow and arrows, one even carried a mace. An alarm sounded: the Test had truly began. A cry came from the students as they charged forward while the targets whimpered backwards. The first target to get killed was a girl named Natalie. As she was trying to foolishly stand her ground, a spear flew through the air and landed with a soft _thud_ straight into her heart. With this the remaining targets packed into an even tighter huddle. It was a true slaughterhouse all targets were dead with in the quarter-hour. The government would cover this up with suicide and runaway stories backed up with fake pictures and forged notes, and every time it worked. The government picked this location simply because the people of it were clueless. Year and year again it worked.

All the targets were dead. One assasin's neck was snapped by a target: Zach. While he was busy smirking at a helpless target across the room, another one snuck up and killed him. A pretty good outcome this year. Jonas was actually the first killer. But that was his _only_ kill. As he watched the life fade out of her eyes he thought of what he had become. Then he slowly faded back into the crowd of scragglers with a terrified look on his face. One month passed. Families had been consulted one by one. Jonas was unreachable. He spent all the daylight sitting in his room. He was assigned a research position. He was neither happy nor sad. Eventually he went to meet the family of the girl he had murdered. It was a small boy, a mom, dad, older sister, and goldfish named Oscar. The little boy made clear of that when Jonas showed up. Other students had gone through shock like Jonas, but none lasted as long as he. The family soon learned the truth about their daughter but swore to conceal the secret from anyone else. With the family at peace, Jonas was finally at peace with himself.

The Test was finally over.


End file.
